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Home , Arne Tiselius, Chemist, Davy Medal, Emil Fischer, Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize

Nobei Prizewinner

The 1954 in goes to the chairman of Caltech's Division of Chemistry and for his research into the of the and the structure of .

DR., Professor of Chemistry, chairman of Prize in for his work on the determination of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, the electronic charge. In 1933 the prize in and director of the Gates and Crellin Laboratories at and went to the late Hunt Morgan, Caltech has been awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in chem- Professor of and chairman of the Division of istry by the Swedish Royal Academy of . Biology from 1928 to 1944, for his research on heredity. hi award is based on Dr. Pauling's "research into the In 1936 Carl Anderson, a Caltech alumnus and Professor nature of the chemical bond (the forces that hold - of Physics here since 1939, won the physics prize for cules together) and its application to the elucidation his discovery of the positron. of the structure of complex substances9'-probably re- Edwin M. McMillan, another Caltech alumnus (BS ferring to his researches into the structure of silicate '28, MS '29), now Professor of Physics at the University minerals, and alloys, other complex inorganic of California at Berkeley, shared the 1951 prize in substances, complex organic compounds, and proteins. chemistry with his colleague at UC, Glenn T. Seaborg, The prize, established by the will of the late Alfred for their joint discoveries of six radioactive elements Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite, includes a di- used in the development of atomic energy. ploma, the Nobel medal and a cash prize of approx- Linus Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon, on Feb- imately $35,000. Dr. Pauling has been invited to Stock- ruary 28, 1901. Both his father and his maternal grand- holm to receive the award in person, from King Gustav father were druggists-though this had little to do with Adolph of , on . his later interest in chemistry, for both men died when Dr. Pauling is the fourth Caltech faculty member to Linus was about 9 years old. receive a Nobel Prize. In 1923 the late Robert A, Milli- He was 11 when he first showed an interest in science, kan, Professor of Physics and chairman of the Caltech by starting an insect collection. A year later he was Executive Council from 1921 to 1945, received the Nobel an avid collector of rocks and minerals, poring over NOVEMBER, 1954 'sychology at the University of Texas ouple of chemical experiment

guished research of the year by a young man not over 30 111 1933 he was elected to the 'Jational Academy of Scienceethe youngest member of that distinguished . . . .A"< . . . loyes' suggestion 11c began r~3earch, with Profess0 Loscoe G. Dickinson, on the determination of the struc of Cahech's Division of

he riiolecules 6f most other chemical substances, which consist of a score or 1948-the Presidential for his out- two of individual , are made up standing services during the war to the Explosives Divi- of thousands-sometimes millions-of individual atoms, sion, the Chemistry and Rocket Divisions, and the Com- each occupying a specific place in the architecture of mittees on Medical Research and Internal Ballistics of the moIecule, the National Defense Research Committee. The first great advance toward an understanding of 1949-the presidency of the American Chemical was made in 1900 when the German Society. found that proteins are composed 1951-the Gilbert Newton Lewis Medal of the Cali- of simpler substances known as amino acids. These were fornia Section of the ACS. found to be linked together into larger groups known as polypeptides. The problem of determining the structure of proteins Academic honors then became one of finding the sequence of various amino He has received honorary degrees from 11 universities: acids in the polypeptide chain and the way in which the including Oregon State, Princeton, Chicago, Cambridge, polypeptide chain is coiled. London, Yale, Oxford, , , Tampa and New Brunswick. Protein studies He is the author, or co-author, of five textbooks and of close to 300 scientific papers in the fields of chemistry Instead of trying to study the complicated proteins and physics. And, to top off a11 this professional activity, directlv, Pauling and his co-workers, for more than 15 he is still enthusiastically teaching Caltech's course in years, have been studying the structure of the amino freshman chemistry. acids of simple , and of other simple substances Dr. Pauling was married in 1923 to Ava Helen Miller, related to proteins. By using the information obtained who was one of his chemi5try students a1 Oregon State. in this way they have been able to predict the essential The Paulings live in Pasadena, and have four children: atomic structure of several proteins, including those Linus, Jr., 29? is now Resident in at Queens found in bone, muscle, and red blood cells. Hospital, Honolulu; Peter, 23, was graduated from During the past two years Dr. Pauling has been work- Caltech in 1952 and is now doing graduate work at ing on the structure of collagen, the protein that occurs Cambridge University in England; Linda. 22, was in tendons, bone and skin. It is one of the most im- graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, last portant proteins in the human body. for it gives strength June, and is now also studying at Cambridge; Crellin, and toughness to tissues. There is evidence now that 17, is a freshman at Reed this year. many diseases, such as arthritis, involve- some abnor- mality in the manufacture or structure of this protein. Pauling and his associates have already found that sickle-cell anemia, a hereditary disease of the blood, Pauling's statement arises from abnormalities in the structure of the hemo- When he received notification this month that he had globin . Knowledge of the atomic structure of been given the Nobel Prize? Dr. l'auling said: proteins, therefore, promises to be extremely valuable "The award of the Nobel Prize is a great honor, and in medical research. I appreciate deeply the action of thr Royal Swedish Professor ? vice-president of the Nobel Academy of Science in selecting me to receive the 1954 Foundation, and himself a former chemistry winner, has Prize in chemistry. I am deeply appreciative also of the termed Pauling's achievements "a major contribution to contribution5 made by my outstandingly able collabo- protein chemistry. a field where the slightest theoretical rators in the Gates and Crellin Laboratories of Chemistry advance can have important consequences in explaining of the California Institute of Technology to the work the nature of diseases and bringing a cure for them." for which the Prize was awarded. I have been fortunate in having been for 32 years a member of the stall' of this Insti~utr,where ther~are unusually favorable con- Chemical honors ditions for carrying on scientific research. Dr. Pauling's work has brought him the highest honors ''I have lived through the interesting period of initial that the field of chemistry has to offer. In addition to development of the modern science of molecular struc- the Award in Pure Chemistry of the American Chemical ture, which might be called molecuIar architecture. * Society, which he won in 1931, he has received: Thirty-two years ago detailed structures were first de- 1941-the William H. Nichols Gold Medal of the New termined for simple moIecules, such as the water mole- York Section of the ACS. cule. Now the structures of complex molecules, contain- 1946-the Willard Gibbs Medal of the Chicago Sec- ing thousands of atoms, are being determined. I think tion of the ACS. that in the next few decades knowledge of the molecular 1947-the of the Royal Society of Lon- structure of drugs and also of proteins and other con- don, and the Theodore William Richards Medal of the stituents of the human body will to significant pro- Northeastern Section of the ACS. gress in biology and medicine."

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